As is known in the art, allocation of resources plays an important role in computer systems. Resources such as storage resources are required to perform certain tasks. For example, a database administrator (DBA) can request storage resources required to perform a backup operation so that the storage resource will have certain characteristics when used for restore. In such a case, the DBA requesting the resource may simply request an amount of storage (e.g. 100 Gigabytes) necessary to perform the restore operation. The DBA does not know specifics regarding the storage. That is, no details regarding the type, speed or other properties regarding the requested storage are included with the DBA request.
A storage administrator (SA) receives the DBA request, assesses the available storage resources and allocates a pool of storage to the DBA. The DBA then uses the so-allocated storage to perform the restore operation. The pool of storage allocated by the SA is typically provided from a subset of the storage resources which the SA knows to be available. Each of the storage resources making up the storage pool allocated by the SA typically have different characteristics or properties. For example, one storage resource in the storage pool may be faster than another storage resource. The DBA must, however, operate with whatever resources the SA allocates to the DBA.
One problem with this approach is that the resources allocated to the DBA may have characteristics which are less than optimum for the operation which the DBA must perform. That is, the pool of storage made available to the database administrator may not necessarily be the best possible storage for the intended operation. For example, the DBA may optimally perform an operation with storage having a certain characteristic (e.g. the storage must be fast). The storage resources which make up the storage pool, however, may not have such a characteristic. Thus, the DBA may be allocated storage that is less then the optimal storage available to fulfill the request. Furthermore, the DBA may be allocated storage that would be better served by other requests for storage.
It would, therefore, be desirable to efficiently allocate the resources in a processing system. It would be further desirable to have a system and technique which responds to a party requesting a resource by allocating resources to the requesting party based on resource attributes specified by the requesting party. It would also be desirable to provide a technique which allows a party to specify particular resource attributes in a resource request.